Unlikely combos...combining plants in the rock garden...

[Kelaidis]

We see lots of stunning closeups and vignettes of single alpine plants: but rock gardens are as full of interesting combinations as any perennial border. Maybe we can explore a few...Although my first posting isn't plants you would ever be likely to see combined anywhere except Denver I suspect. It's like a mini United Nations: Bergeranthus jamesii from Tarkastad, East Cape next to Asperula daphneola from Turkey and Eriogonum ovalifolium from Western America: wouldn't it be nice if humans could learn to live together like that?

[David Sellars]

I wish I could grow Eriogonum ovalifolium with flowers just like in the mountains.  Great picture!

Here's an unlikely combo combining southern and northern hemispheres.  Helichrysum sessiloides and Androsace studiosorum grow quite happily together in our garden but South Africa and Nepal are half a world apart.

[Kelaidis]

I love these bi-polar...or should I say bi-hemisphaeric pairings! Thanks, David, for rising to the challenge! Here are a few more combos to peruse: I've really been enjoying organizing this year's images. We forget in the August doldrums how magnificent it was back in April, May and June!

The first is on the shady, north side ofr my house: Uvularia grandiflora with that horrendous pest, Corydalis linstowiana ("Du Fu Temple") which I've given up trying to control.  Here at least it looks winsome.

The next two show a bevy of phloxes, Daphne retusa, and a closeup of Matthiola montana and Phlox 'Scarlet Flame' (I think) with a tuft of Oxalis adenophylla leaves that fit right in!

The last is the south face of my main rock garden at height of glory with lots of tufted Mesembs, bright pink Asperula hirtella, Thymus "neicefiii" (Likely not) and Coluteocarpus vesicarius in full seed below the soft pink Aethionema capitatum, one of the many essential Persian candytufts. The irridescent lilac clumps are Iberis taurica (supposedly) in a very compact, perennial race that looks an awful lot like a Thlaspi. Annoying how many of these superb new rock plants from Western Asia are questionably named....

[David Sellars]

I think colour combinations in the rock garden are often a result of serendipity rather than real planning.  Getting plants to grow is the first challenge; flowering is a bonus but somehow, plant combinations always seem to work with alpines.  Here are a few more.

[Lori S.]

Wow, stunning combinations!  It's quite mind-boggling to consider the distances that can be spanned in a rock garden bed!
Panayoti and David, your photos are truly inspiring.   
What an absolutely amazing garden you have, David! 

[Todd Boland]

I echo Lori...spectacular garden David! (not to slight Panayoti who also has a wonderful garden, albeit, a different slant being xeric  )

[Spiegel]

I'm loving this thread.  Such different gardens with such wonderful combinations.  I plant with color and bloom time in mind but there are so many variables during the growing season my plans often don't turn out as expected.  The best combinations seem to occur accidentally, such as an Epimedium grandiflorum seeding itself next to Dicentra cucullaria.  As the dicentra fades, the new reddish foliage of the epimedium takes over, hiding the yellowing foliage.  This has become a very permanent feature and a charming one for which I take absolutely no credit. 

Another combination is Aquilegia discolor with Lewisia tweedyi, and yet another is Genista depressa with Veronica thymoides ssp pseudocinerea.  Both these were planned and worked but there are far more plans that never worked.

[David Sellars]

Here's a few more combos.  The colour of the blue Meconopsis set against the lurid pink of a famous rhododendron hybrid, Lem's Cameo, is actually quite pleasing.  Nepal meets Seattle, where Halfdan Lem did most of his hybridizing.

[Spiegel]

David, I look at the pictures of your beautiful garden with rhododendrons forming that gorgeous background and just sigh.  They're impossible in this dry and windy garden.  Do you grow the very dwarf forms too?

[David Sellars]

Anne:

We started our garden from scratch and rhododendrons were our first interest because we needed to fill up space! When we got into rock gardening we found the rhododendrons made a great backdrop.  More serendipity.

We have a few dwarf rhododendrons in the rock garden; R. keleticum, R. forrestii repens for example.  Our favourite is R. campylogynum with its delicate little bells.  It amuses me to grow R. ferrugineum in the rock garden but it does not look as good as it does in the Alps.

[Hoy]

David, I am jealously looking at your pictures: How can you grow real rock garden gems in a climate as wet as you say? Here plants tend to rot even with excellent drainage.

[David Sellars]

Trond:

I struggled for several years with lots of failures before hitting on the solution.  I now don't bother at all with the natural soil in the garden.  It's heavy clay anyway.  The rock garden is built on top of the clay using mostly sand with a wide gradation, from fine particles to coarse angular pieces up to about 6 mm. Sometimes I mix in a bit of peat-based growing medium (not more than about 10-20 % of the total) but for high alpines,  sand works just fine. The sand I use now is made of leftovers from crushed rock and natural sand.  I believe the key is the wide gradation which gives good drainage but also firmness around the roots plus the crushed rock fines provide mineral nutrients.  I think washed "builders" sand is just too loose.  

I wrote an article on this in the AGC BC Bulletin, page 9.

http://www.agc-bc.ca/bulletin/AGCofBC-winter2008.pdf

I also use removable rain shelters for some areas in the winter.  They help but generally they are not essential.

[David Sellars]

David, I look at the pictures of your beautiful garden with rhododendrons forming that gorgeous background and just sigh.  They're impossible in this dry and windy garden.  Do you grow the very dwarf forms too?

Anne:

I was just admiring the pictures of your garden on the SRGC forum taken by Cliff Booker.  What an amazing garden.  I love the spare, elegant look you have achieved.  You don't need rhodos when you have natural rock outcrops, exquisite light and perfect wind conditions for dryland alpines and cushion plants.

[Hoy]

Trond:

I struggled for several years with lots of failures before hitting on the solution.  I now don't bother at all with the natural soil in the garden.  It's heavy clay anyway.  The rock garden is built on top of the clay using mostly sand with a wide gradation, from fine particles to coarse angular pieces up to about 6 mm. Sometimes I mix in a bit of peat-based growing medium (not more than about 10-20 % of the total) but for high alpines,  sand works just fine. The sand I use now is made of leftovers from crushed rock and natural sand.  I believe the key is the wide gradation which gives good drainage but also firmness around the roots plus the crushed rock fines provide mineral nutrients.  I think washed "builders" sand is just too loose.  

I wrote an article on this in the AGC BC Bulletin, page 9.

http://www.agc-bc.ca/bulletin/AGCofBC-winter2008.pdf

I also use removable rain shelters for some areas in the winter.  They help but generally they are not essential.

Thanks, David. I use lots of sand and gravel too. The natural soil at my place is black and brown acidic humusy soil in a thin layer on bedrock. Wish I had more space to build a new rock garden!